The Einstein Hat © 2023 Sy Chen

Designed from 3/27/23-3/31/23; Diagrammed from 4/1/2023 to 4/3/2023.

This 13-sided polygon is the first known example of an “einstein,” a single shape that can be tiled to cover a plane with
a pattern that never repeats. The shape was discovered by David Smith.
After several failed attempts on the modular approach using either a 4-unit diamond shape or an 8-unit kite shape,
I put them aside and started to work on a single-piece version. Finally, I came up with this one-piece solution.

1. Start from a square with both 2. 3. Mark a crease by folding edge to

sides of the same color. White point. Unfold the diagonal flap
used here for clarity. afterward.

4. 5. 6.

11. Unfold the paper back

to the original square
7. Fold point to center 8. 9. 10. after making the upper
line. horizontal crease.

© Copyright 2023 by Sy Chen 1

This document was published by OrigamiUSA’s online magazine, The Fold, with permission from the author.
If you did not obtain this document from The Fold’s website, you may have infringed upon the author’s copyright.
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12. 13. 14.

15. 16. Squash the lower right corner. 17.

18. Fold the upper flap down 19. Fold the lower flap 20. In-progress view; Squash
while squashing the lower left to the left while squashing to flatten the model.
edge. Two dots will align. the hidden edge beneath.

21. Pull out the single trapped 22. 23.

layer near the lower right corner.

© Copyright 2023 by Sy Chen 2

This document was published by OrigamiUSA’s online magazine, The Fold, with permission from the author.
If you did not obtain this document from The Fold’s website, you may have infringed upon the author’s copyright.
Join OrigamiUSA online at https://origamiusa.org/
24. The hat completed The monocolor version

Starting crease pattern Cleaner side The other side

Mirrored crease pattern

Folded strip at the bottom

Redundant strip cut off

© Copyright 2023 by Sy Chen 3

This document was published by OrigamiUSA’s online magazine, The Fold, with permission from the author.
If you did not obtain this document from The Fold’s website, you may have infringed upon the author’s copyright.
Join OrigamiUSA online at https://origamiusa.org/
The Einstein Turtle
Smith later discovered another einstein shape that looked like a turtle!
It happens to be another 13-sided polygon but consisting of 10 kites connected
at their edges. After folding many pieces of hats, I figured the new turtle shape
would be a good challenge. Here is my crease pattern for the turtle.

Crease pattern

The 13-sided turtle from 10

connected kites

© Copyright 2023 by Sy Chen 4

This document was published by OrigamiUSA’s online magazine, The Fold, with permission from the author.
If you did not obtain this document from The Fold’s website, you may have infringed upon the author’s copyright.
Join OrigamiUSA online at https://origamiusa.org/